Chapter 275: People are worried and make a plan to attack This is human nature. One cannot bear to see others living badly, nor can one bear to see others living too well. With the arrival of Lu Bu's wife and children, a disharmonious atmosphere emerged in Tan County. On the one hand, Lu Bu's family was reunited, while on the other hand, a number of generals and officers were separated from their wives and children. How could people not feel resentful in the face of such a situation? But even if they felt resentful, they dared not speak out. Lu Bu's powerful deterrent force intimidated the generals, making them dare not say a word against Lu Bu. But there is one exception, and that person is Lu Bu's brother Wei Xu. However, after Wei Xu was defeated that day, he came to Tan County to join Chen Gong, Wei Yue and others. Because he lost the important town of Xia Pi, every day in Tan County was extremely painful. This situation continued until Lu Bu arrived in Tan County.

As soon as Lu Bu entered the city, the first thing he did was to have him tied up and prepared to be thrown down for execution. Fortunately, his brother Wei Yue pleaded for him and he was spared, but his sentence was changed to eighty strokes of the cane. You should know that the beating in the army is extremely severe. An ordinary person could be beaten to death after being beaten thirty or forty times. Although Wei Xu was a general, if he were to be beaten with eighty sticks, he would be half dead even if he didn't die. So he begged for mercy, but Lu Bu still refused and ordered him to carry out his order. After being beaten with the stick for about fifty times, Wei Xu fainted and was finally spared. But since then, I have been lying in bed for more than half a month and have not been able to get up. After seeing that Wei Yue was eliminated, all the generals dared not visit him, and they were naturally sad and resentful. At this time, Lu Bu got a family and left happily. Generals like Hou Cheng, Wei Yue, Cheng Lian and others came to the mansion to visit him. When Wei Xu saw everyone coming, he was not happy at all, but burst into tears. When everyone asked Wei Xu why, he wiped his tears and cried: "When I was punished with a cane, none of you came to visit me." "If it weren't for a serious crime, why would you come here? It must be that the lord wants to kill me and asks you to come and take me!" "If that is the case, you should all remember our friendship and leave my body intact!" Among the crowd, Wei Yue was the closest to him and said with a smile: "Brother, you misunderstood us, because Qin Zhen sent the master's children here today." "We are thinking that our brother's crime can be forgiven, so we come to congratulate him!" Upon hearing this, Hou Cheng and Cheng Lian both nodded in congratulations. Unexpectedly, when Wei Xu heard this, he cried even more aggrievedly and said: "If Qin Zhen had done this earlier, why would I have to endure this pain?"

"It's been more than ten days now, but it still hasn't recovered." "Even if I can get back to health in this life, I will probably still be sick. What's there to be happy about?" When everyone heard this, their smiles froze, and they all lowered their heads and sighed, thinking that Lu Bu's punishment was too severe. Although Wei Xu did lose Xia Pi, the primary responsibility did not lie with Wei Xu. If Chen Gui had not planned in the city, Wei Xu might not have lost the city. But when Lu Bu came, he beat Wei Xu dozens of times without asking any questions. Although he was spared a lot of punishment, it was still too severe. Everyone has followed Lu Bu until now, and seeing Wei Xu like this, they thought of themselves and felt uncomfortable. Only Wei Yue saw this and hurried forward to persuade: "Brother, please don't do this. Although you have been beaten, you should take good care of yourself and nothing serious will happen." "If the lord hears what you say, I'm afraid he'll punish you with a stick again!" Having said that, he turned around and persuaded Hou Cheng and Cheng Lian to leave. When Wei Xu saw this, tears suddenly fell again: "We are here, and we don't know whether we will live or die, so why should we be afraid of being punished?" "I asked my dear brother, Qin Zhen will send the lord's family back." "Then have our children been sent here? Where are they?" "Today, Lü Bu has taken his family with him. Who will take care of our family?" "If this continues, I will just become a slave to the government and serve others as a slave. How can this be what you all want?" It would have been fine if he didn't say anything. After he said that, everyone frowned. To be honest, as the lord, Lu Bu can protect his family no matter what. But there is no guarantee for their families. If Qin Zhen is a bit cruel, it is not impossible that he will make all of them official slaves. Therefore, Wei Xu's words immediately cast a shadow on everyone's heart. Seeing this, Wei Yue laughed dryly for a while, pointed at Wei Xu and said: "He must be crazy, talking nonsense like this!" "Please don't be surprised, just take it as a joke!" When Cheng Lianhou Cheng saw this, they all looked at each other, smiled, and left one after another. After the two of them left, Wei Yue turned back to look at Wei Xu and said in a deep voice: "Now that I am on the bed of punishment, I will take good care of myself." "What do you mean by saying such nonsense, brother?" The two are brothers, so naturally they speak more intimately than outsiders. But when Wei Xu heard this, he put on a serious face, wiped away his tears and said in a deep voice: "Brother, just say that I am your brother. I wonder if what you said is wrong?" "We are now trapped here, and our families are all in Qin Zhen's hands."

"If we leave, will Qin Zhen let us go?" "You have no children, but I have children. If we go, your children will surely become slaves!" "We have been following Lu Bu for more than ten years. Now that things have come to this, is it a crime to even worry about my wife and children?" When Wei Yue heard this, he stared at Wei Xu, unable to say a word. He did not expect that after receiving such a beating, Wei Xu would be so angry. Judging from his appearance, he has not recovered yet, otherwise he would probably surrender to Qin Zhen directly. After thinking about this, he gritted his teeth and lowered his head and said: "Brother, are you planning to surrender to Qin Zhen now?" Seeing this, Wei Xu frowned and said angrily: "If I had known the result would be like this, what would have happened if I had voted for Qin Zhen?" "In this case, there is no need to stay here sick and unable to exercise freedom!" "I know you are friendly with Lu Bu. If you want to tell on him, go ahead." "It's just a matter of death, but I'm not afraid of it!" After hearing this, Wei Yue knew that Wei Xu had most likely developed ulterior motives. If someone else had said this, he would have definitely gone to seek secret help. But they are brothers after all. No matter how close Lu Bu is to him, how can he be closer than his brother? So he didn't know what to do for a while, so he just left in anger. On the other side, after Hou Cheng and Cheng Lian left Wei Xu's room, they still felt a little complicated. Originally, they were just a little unbalanced about Lu Bu's family problems. But Wei Xu's words made the two realize that after they left, their family might be dealt with by Qin Zhen. This is not a simple question of breaking through, but a question of whether they can give up their families. Like Wei Xu, Hou Cheng and Cheng Lian also have families. In other words, there were no bachelors under Lu Bu's command. Even Chen Gong had an old mother and daughter in Xia Pi! But Qin Zhen is not Lao Cao, and Qin Zhen has no friendship with them at all. Once they leave, Qin Zhen may use any means to deal with these prisoners. Serving as an official slave is even considered a relatively good outcome. So after the two of them left Wei Xu's room, they were silent for a moment, and Hou Cheng was a little moved and said: "What do you think of what General Wei said just now?" Cheng Lian was more loyal than Song Xian, but after hearing this, he sighed: "At this point, we are not Marquis Wen, so there is nothing to worry about!" "But just take things as they come and wait for Marquis Wen's order." When Hou Cheng heard him reply like this, his eyes narrowed immediately and he wanted to ask further. But he and Cheng Lian are not like Wei Xu and Wei Yue. They know that some things can be said and some things cannot be said! After all, no one knows what the person in front of you is thinking! Will you be caught by the other party because of your slip of the tongue?

But he didn't ask, Cheng Lian turned around and looked at him and said: "The general only asked me about my thoughts. I wonder how the general thinks?" Seeing him asking this, Hou Cheng did not tell him directly, but just smiled and said: "I agree with you, brother. We can't make the decision, so what can we worry about?" Having said this, he took a step forward and walked in front of Cheng Lian. Looking at Hou Cheng's departing back, Cheng Lian was silent for a moment, then sighed slightly and followed Hou Cheng. It can be said that under Qin Zhen's divisive offensive, the morale of Lu Bu's men began to waver. Qin Song, one of Lu Bu's generals and important advisers, was also among them. I don’t know if it’s because he thought of his family that made Qin Song feel apprehensive, but he no longer insisted on the issue of asking for help that he had argued with Chen Gong about before. So when Lu Bu gave up his power, Chen Gong strongly advocated asking Yuan Shao for help. It was finally decided that Xu Si and Wang Kai would go north to contact Yuan Tan. On the other side, after Qin Zhen sent Lu Bu's family into the city, he returned to the big tent to discuss strategies to defeat the enemy. At this time, as the various armies united together, the lineup in their tent had become increasingly luxurious. Qin Zhen was seen sitting on the main seat, with civil and military officials separated. The military generals were headed by Zang Ba, and included Lei Xu, Zhao Yun, Gan Ning, Xu Sheng, Zhang Liao, Sun Guan, Wu Dun and others. The civil officials were headed by Chen Deng, and included Xu Shu, Chen Jiao, Xu Xuan, Yan Jun and others. The civil and military officials sat together, and the atmosphere was naturally much more harmonious than that in the city. It was almost the end of the year and the weather was getting colder. Qin Zhen sat by the fire and smiled at everyone: "Before I went north this time, I met my wife Zhao Ji." "I said that by the end of this year, I will be able to lead my army back home and celebrate the New Year." "I didn't expect that it would be so cold and snowy now, and I would still trouble you to besiege the city with me." "I feel guilty towards my wife and children, and I feel bad towards you all. I am really sorry!" Everyone naturally smiled when they heard his words. In fact, they all knew that the war was about to end at this point. The next step is just to take credit. Even if it is difficult, what can you do? However, since Qin Zhen said so, they naturally had to express their opinions, and immediately saw Lei Xu and said: "Military advisor, you are wrong. We are all here to fight against the enemy." "Now that we have trapped the enemy here, we will naturally defeat them all in one fell swoop. Even if it is a little tiring, it doesn't matter!" "The military advisor is already exhausted, and I feel bad for not being able to share his worries." "Military Advisor, you said so. We are ashamed now!" As soon as he made this statement, everyone echoed him and expressed that they had no objection. Seeing this, Qin Zhen nodded, secretly thinking that the army's morale was good, and smiled again: "Well, since you all want to settle the matter in a fight, we shouldn't delay any further!" "As you all know, I have released Lü Bu's wife and children today."

"This move was the intention of Lord Chen of Xia Pi, to alienate the officers and soldiers in the city." "Now that this plan has been implemented, I dare to conclude that the people in the city will be divided and the city will be destroyed soon." "The key is how to continue to win the hearts and minds of the people. Do you have any good ideas?" Seeing Qin Zhen asking for advice, everyone looked at each other, and then Zang Ba stood up and said: "Now that we have obtained Lord Chen's plan to shake the morale of the troops in the city, we will attack fiercely." "We can attack from all sides to tire out the soldiers in the city, and then we can succeed!" Seeing him seeking a fight like this, Qin Zhen couldn't help but ask: "The road is blocked by heavy snow, and it is inconvenient to climb the wall to the city. How can we attack by force?" When Zang Ba saw this, he smiled slightly and said to Qin Zhen: "Sir, you have often traveled to the south, but you don't know the climate here." "The weather has been extremely cold these days, which is perfect for attacking the city." "Because the walls of Tan County are high and thick, and the moats on all sides are quite deep!" "Under normal circumstances, we still need to fill ditches and ditches when attacking the city." "But now we can divert water into the river. It only takes a few days for the river to freeze over and we can walk on flat ground." "Just build some ladders and hooks, and you can rush in!" After all, Xuzhou is located north of the Huai River, and the climate is quite cold during the current Little Ice Age. According to Zang Ba's idea, they could now fill up the moat and use it for a fierce attack. As soon as these words were spoken, they immediately attracted the agreement of other generals. Now they had an absolute advantage in military strength and could try a strong attack. Qin Zhen nodded upon seeing this, but then said: "This method is not bad, but Lu Bu has more than 10,000 soldiers and horses. We cannot underestimate him." "General, you can try this method. If it doesn't work, try another one!" "Do you have any other strategies? Feel free to speak up." As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Shu stood up and bowed, saying: "I have a plan that can be used in conjunction with General Zang to capture the city." (End of this chapter)